Published

Written by

Photography

Welcome to this week’s edition of our Friday Quality Linkage column. Please enjoy this week’s collection of interesting and entertaining links. Brew a fresh cup of coffee, find a comfortable place, and relax.

Editor’s Note: This is the last Linkage column before Christmas, so we’d like to wish all our readers a happy holiday this weekend. 2016 has been a rough one for everybody, so be sure to enjoy quality time with your loved ones all the more as we look forward to next year.

In this 17-minute video essay, filmmaker Lewis Michael Bond analyzes Hayao Miyazaki’s approach not only to animation, but also the emotional depth of his characters, even down to their smallest mannerisms.

If you’re a huge fan of Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli, there’s probably nothing you don’t already know or haven’t thought about here, but it’s a wonderful analysis regardless.

Like many 99% Invisible listeners, I was recently turned onto the Twenty Thousand Hertz podcast, which tells “the stories behind the world’s most recognizable and interesting sounds.” I’ve only listened to two episodes so far, but I’m already a fan:

If you still haven’t given the Hamilton musical a shot by now (see what I did there?), Merlin Mann has some good tips for diving in:

Proviso: This show is long and weird and overhyped and it is not for everyone. If you’re not already a fan, you’re certainly sick of hearing about it. Sorry. But if you maybe are interested, hey, here’s a sane and scalable (if unorthodox and opinionated) way to decide if Hamilton is right for you.

When I decided to finally listen to Hamilton (which was long after it’d already taken the world by storm), my method was to lay on my bed one night and just listen all the way through; no iPhone in hand, nothing else to distract me, just me and the music. I rarely listen to anything like that anymore, but I imagined I could surely absorb it all in one sitting.

Boy, was I wrong.

I got the gist of the story, sure, but there were so many small (yet genius) things happening in the lyrics and between characters that a lot of it flew by without me even noticing until I listened again, and again, and again, and watched videos of the cast performing it live, and listened again, and read about how the show was made, then listened some more…you get the picture.

* * *

Got any suggestions for articles, videos, stories, photographs, and any other links you think we should be posting in our weekly Quality Linkage? Please do let us know on Twitter.